Demons and Angels
by ownerer117
Summary: Who was the Demon Lord of the Round Table and why did he fight.  chapters drunken Demon and Midnight flight have been combined and edited , sorry for the wait.
1. Like a Angel he flew

Somewhere in the Usean Continent, on a border, on a battlefield.

Bullets flew through the air, explosions and small craters littered the ground as I advanced through the worn our city. I slowly advanced towards the front lines and the sounds of war grew louder and louder, aircraft soared over head launching missiles and bullets tearing through the defending army.

The sounds of gunfire nearby changed to a couple of guns clicking, out of ammo.

"FUCK, IM OUT JOHNSON?"

"SORRY, ME TO SIR!"

"CORPORAL?"

"YA SARGE 1 SEC!"

As I turned the corner I saw some sort of sandbag barrier, with a small amount of ragtag men firing at an advancing squad on the other side of the street. Someone through a number of clips to who I presumed to be "sarge" and "Johnson" they presumed to open fire on the advancing squad who seemed to possess a APC, using that as a center for their attack they were quickly advancing on the barricade.

"Sarge!" someone yelled, ducking down under the barricade as an explosive shell ran past his head.

"I see private."

The sergeant quickly grabbed a radio and ducked down under the barricade and began issuing orders.

"This is Sergeant Larry Foulke, commander of the 32nd we need air support now, we got a roller incoming!" he yelled into the mic.

I quickly advanced building to building, using them as cover and I got close enough so that I could hear the response over the radio.

"Sorry sergeant you need the authorization code from the platoon commander before you we can send air support."

The sergeant began to dive through the barricade, on the other side he quickly grabbed a patch off of a dead body and handed it to the corporal, he quikly rolled over to the friendly side of the sandbags as several bullets impacted where he had just been crouching.

"Congratulations on your promotion LT now get us some air support!" The sergeant yelled as he gave the patch to the corporal.

"Authorization code omega foxtrot niner 3 black pie NOW GIVE US SOME FUCKING AIR SUPPORT!" the corporal yelled into the mic as the APC and its accompanying troops moved closer and closer.

"Roger, 64 air squad inbound prepare for close air support." The voice responded, I kept moving closer to the front line, looking for my target, I must find him.

"get the fuck down!" someone yelled as I was thrown to the ground by a heavy sack of uniform and metal. Right then a aircraft strafed where I had just been standing, the run continued until it tore up the APC and the surrounding troops.

The sergeant reached over for the radio:

"Thanks…"

"Rifleman… no problem god"

"It's been a long time since those days, now it's only sergeant."

"Well no problem sergeant, see you again"

I slowly got up into a crouch and looked at the sergeant.

"So you are Sergeant Larry Foulke, AKA Solo Wing Pixy."

"Ya, whose asking?"

"That doesn't matter, I've come here to investigate the Demon Lord, you were his wingman , right?"

"Ya, is this a interview or something?"

"Ya it is."

"Well I guess we should get off the front lines for now then," he turned to face the corporal "you've got command, I'll be back later."

"Yes sir" he said with a salute.

"For the last time, drop the salute."

"Yes sir."

"Ok let's go." Pixy said, grabbing me by the back of my shirt as I took pictures of the barricade and the burnt out APC.

He led me through the battle won city until we got to a building, that looked slightly less bombed out then the rest of the buildings.

When we entered the building he led me to the second story and we entered a room that had a perfect view over the surrounding battle field.

"So shall we begin?"

"Ya sure"

****In my mind****

We went over several topics in the interview, mostly about the Demon lord and the war, he seemed quite open to talk about it , so did everyone else I interviewed. It was strange how open they were, I've heard about reporters like me being shutout and driven off but this was completely different.

**** Several hour into the interview****

"The real question you should be asking is why he took to the sky that will answer all your questions that will be the truth." Pixie stated the question; shifting his grip on his AK he looked straight into my eyes.

"Ok then, why did he take to the sky?" I asked, looking back into his eye, I held his gaze , I jotted this down into my note book but continued to hold his gaze.

"A lot of people will answer this question differently, some people said that he was born there, other said that was his place killing demons in heavens, but the real answer is different." He took a pause for a second but then continued.

"I asked him one day, right after we finished a mission why he fought and he told me never ask that, he said that that wasn't the real question I should ask." Pixie turned and spat his gum out, landing into the courtyard below.

"At the time I wasn't sure what I said wrong, his tone sent a wave through me, wave of change." Pixie continued, taking another piece of gum out, the clean aluminum wrapper was strange in the warzone, like me.

"It wasn't for a while that I knew what I should ask, it was the day before I left him."

"Was it true he knew?" I asked, interrupting Pixie but it was a question I had to ask.

"He knew, right before we got to our aircraft, he looked at me and asked why I took to the sky, he looked at me, his gaze went right through me, and he could do that. He asked me why I took to the sky. Before I could respond he walked away, this made me think of my answers for that day. I could tell that he knew what gona was happen, he could always see the future."

"Why did you take to the sky?" I asked, continuing to write down in my note pad, gun shots in the distance sent shivers going through me.

" I did not know until the day that I launched the world changer, for me it was because I had nothing to lose, and I did not know who I was … For him it was because that's all he had known, that's all he was."

"When he flew he flew like a angel, his skill with the aircraft, his grace has never been achieved by anyone else. He could weave through the tunnels of a fortress, he could dodge aircraft and ground based weapons like he was a dancer , flying through the air . If you managed to get a glimpse of him you would have either had your prayers answered or your heart would stop with fear.

Authors note: I rewrote this part and sorry if it seems similar to a certain western space TV show (if you get what I'm talking about) but it is pretty different, this new first chapter though is just a start, I will be editing other earlier chapters.


	2. Outnumberd

"Hold tight, reinforcements are inbound." The local base commander said as the two jets quickly roared towards the base. They were flying at extreme speeds, burning all the fuel they could , to get to the base as quickly as they possibly could, with this base the belkans would have a foot hold in the east and could begin pushing the eastern region further back . This would give them momentum, and the allied forces would not be able to withstand the onslaught.

The belkans were slowly driving the allied forces into the ground, the outdated aircraft where no match to the highly advanced belkan forces, with the losses the allied forces had sustained in the earlier part of the war all they had left was outdated fighters and green pilots.

The classic Hammer and Anvil tactic has been used extensively by Belka for centuries, and they were back again. The metal that was the allied forces was extremely thin, and malleable, they had to strike while the metal was hot. It was Molten.

"Something must be wrong with my radar...I only see 2 aircraft inbound…" An allied pilot yelled over the radio, the space between them and the ground diminishing. The Allied forces soon got caught between their own AA and the belkan Fighters, for them it was just a fight to survive. The air was full of rocket trails and tracer rounds, flak creating black clouds in the afternoon light.

"This is the demon lord, surrender or die." A voice announced, an air of superiority fell over the battlefield. The jets advanced shape stood out among the battle field, a demon in the heavens. The battlefield froze as the ultimatum was given a lull in the battlefield.

"Go to hell!" a Belkan pilot responded, a tone of superiority in his voice, it was obvious they thought that they could win the battle , when you have quality and quantity against you , the only option is to retreat , and when you can't do that it's just useless fighting. The allied forces knew they were just lambs to the slaughter , but this was their turf. If they lost this, there would be no point in living.

8 missiles flew through the air, taking down 9 belkan aircraft, one of the hit Plaines crashed into another, creating a massive fireball in the air.

A number of yells of excitement came from the crippled allied forces that move had given them some breathing room but they were still heavily outnumbered and outgunned. There only option was to hold out until reinforcements had arrived, which was now.

Cipher quickly changed direction with his aircraft, the high-Gs pressing down on him but his heart beat faster to compensate, he opened fire with his guns, the bullets puncturing the canopy of an enemy fighter and brutally tearing him apart. Metal shrapnel flying out of the plain as the fuel exploded. Death could be so beautiful.

"That's a record, even for you." Pixie yelled over the radio, he also opened fire on the Belkan aircraft, sending a number of them crashing into the desert floor. The demon lord quickly climbed to the top of the battle field to get a glimpse of what was truly happening. The allied forces were finally fighting back and managing to keep the belkans tied up but the airfield below was still taking quite a pounding. Small craters pockmarked the dull brown land below, defensive positions lighting up the sky with tracer rounds and flak bursts.

"Mm wasn't aware we started counting moron rookies as kills."

"Aren't they supposed to be top aces, some thing about being highly prestigious?"

The demon lord quickly dived below; his guns tore up and shattered the canopy of a enemy fighter, a instant kill. The lord next began to follow a belkan fighter, weaving through the airfield he eventually began to fire on it, the bullets hitting the engine causing a massive fireball. He next set his eyes on a belkan fighter below; he quickly pointed his nose downwards and again opened up with the guns, ripping the aircraft to shreds. Pixy followed The almost god like pilot as he punched a hole through the lines of the Belkan air force, the Belkan forces were getting ripped to shreds, Galm team acted like a lance , going straight through the armor and into the heart , the body might live for a couple of seconds but it would still inevitably die.

"There in retreat! All forces brake off and RTB." A voice rang out, the nearby base control center.

"Common I was just beginning to have fun!" Pixie yelled as he fired a missile at a belkan aircraft, taking out a wing and sending it tumbling to the ground. The demon lord also opened fire, taking down a squad of enemy fighters. The remaining belkan forces were thrown into disarray, a mad struggle to get out of the kill zone. Galm team quickly mopped up the surviving Belkan fighters, leaving no survivors and a trail of devastation.

When the best are defeated, it's a sign that the end is near.

"Hey airfield, we're tired of waiting up here, I've flown past the base like 10 times."

"Sorry Galm, we just cleared the wreckage and damaged Plaines coming down first. I'd recommend you return to base, there is a tanker somewhere in the Certa sector."

"Thanks control… Enjoy the clean up."

"Ya, loads of fun…"

They shot off towards the Certa sector, flying at optimum speed for maximum engine performance, the remaining fighters landed at the base, standing by for another attack, another push by the belkans.

"Think these missions will ever end?"

"Well until the Osean army gets mobilized we will still be on the defensive, and even then on the eastern front its gona be hell…"

"I meant these pointless killings…"

"There are killings with points?"

"Good point"

"I am the point son"

"If we ever get armed with nukes I'm flying to Phin, maybe that'll end your ascent or whatever it is."

"You'll be lucky if you get an Osean Ascent."

They flew for about half a hour until they got to the tanker, after refueling the flew at max burn to base, they had been flying for hours and they were hungry after all. They quickly slammed on the breaks, decelerating quickly, slowly sliding into the hangar. Pixy waited on the tarmac, half way turned towards, waiting for taxi.

Cipher slowly shut down the plain and opened the canopy, sliding on well oiled hinges he slowly stood up, he stepped out and laid down on the wing , resting his head on his arm.

"Standard maintenance nothing new." Cipher nonchalantly said to the chief as he approached.

"K, we'll include a fresh wax for free."

Cipher sat up and slid off the wing, he walked out of the hangar into the freezing cold of the bitter winter, walking up to the red wing , a memorial to the day that it had been blown off on a combat mission. Cipher pushed himself onto the wing, sitting on the edge, looking as the small vehicles approached the aircraft. Pixy opened the canopy, taking off his mask and letting his dark hair fall out.

"We don't get paid enough to sit in a cockpit for hours on end." Pixy said, undoing the restraints on that covered him.

"Not that we have enough money to buy Yuktobonia and Osea to boot."

"Well it would be nice to settle down for a while, get a life for once."

"You have more then enough money to retire, and if this war goes on we'll be even richer."

"You want it to go on?"

"Well no but ya…."

A member of the ground crew hooked a cable up to the nose of the fighter and went back to the suddenly appeared taxi. It began with a jolt, shooting forward at incredible speeds for a small craft, which led to cipher losing his balance on the wing of the aircraft, nearly falling off he grabbed the sharp metal edges of the wing, slicing through the delicate skin of his palm, he tried to grab the wing with his other hand , the previous hand having a crimson gashing from the palm to his elbow, pain coursing through his body.

"Fuck!" Cipher yelled, lying back against the wing, being covered in a second layer of crimson. A member of the ground crew came running towards him, looking at the blood quickly emerging out of the aces arm.

"Sir you ok!"

"ya, fucking doubt it!"Cipher said, catching a rag that one of the mechanics had thrown to him, trying to stop the rapid bleeding.

"Make it through one of the deadliest air battles of the war but then you get injured, on the ground. Nice job." Pixy sarcastically stated, slowly clapping.

"Go fix the aircraft; I'll take him to medical." Pixy said, in one move jumping out of the cockpit and landing on the ground with a crouch, he moved over to the wing, grabbing the crimson soaked Cipher and leading him towards the base.

They slowly walked towards the medical ward, leaving a trail of blood behind them, they slowly entered the building, the medical ward was slightly isolated from the rest of the base, and Pixy pushed open the door, leading Cipher to a chair. He proceeded a little bit farther until he saw the on duty nurse.

"Hey I've got a slightly injured pilot over here."

"Ya, sure slightly yup coarse."

"Ya sure I'll be with you in a second." She said, setting down the clipboard, looked like she was inventorying something. She gracefully walked over to cipher, who had been covering his arm with a rag that the mechanics had given to him, it had slowed the bleeding but not stopped by any way.

"Just need some stitches can do it in my sleep, this way"

Cipher turned to pixy and muttered a "I'm good go have fun."

To which pixy responded, "I'll be in the mess".

She led him to a medical bed which he sat down on; she produced a needle and some thread along with a disinfected which he poured onto a small pad of gauss, disinfecting the cut.

"So, what happened, don't get to much news over here?" she asked, beginning to stitch up the long gash.

"We were on a combat mission earlier, support for one of the more forward bases."

"Got hit? Shrapnel?" she asked, continuing to sew up the cut.

Cipher laughed then began to explain, "No got back alright, mission was a success, even got back fine."

"So what happened?"

"I had brought in my aircraft and was sitting on pixies wing, waiting for his plain to be brought in." he cringed as she pulled a string tight.

"Sorry."

"It's nothing, but anyway, the ground crew decided to suddenly accelerate the aircraft which I lost my balance and got this…"

"You survive numerous massive air battles, and get cut on a wing …" she said, silently chucking.

She continued, but quickly finished.

"Ideally I would give you a transfusion but we are low on supplies and you should be fine."

"Thanks doc." Cipher said, standing up and stretching his hand, feeling the stitches twisting with his movements. It was a crude medical technique but she did a good job, it was just like knots on a foot ball, sturdy, subtle but in no way considered graceful.

"I'm not a doctor but thanks…"

Cipher walked out, making his way towards the mess hall. He passed others in the hallway, looking shocked at his crimson tainted hand, when a hero is injured it can cripple morale.

Cipher pushed open the door, moving through the crowded mess hall to Pixy, a number of "ways to go" and "nice job" erupted from the personnel of the base.

"Every time we win…"

"You don't enjoy it?" Cipher asked, pushing aside some people so he could pull up a chair.

"I never thought I would ever say fans are annoying, but they are."

"Get used to it…"

AU/N this should be MUCH better, gona keep redoing some earlier chapters so read back from time to time.

PS every time someone doesn't review my sole dies.


	3. Angels cant die

"What do you say about him being dead? From what I heard in the sky he was untouchable." I asked, the gunfire slowly fading away. Although we weren't on the frontlines themselves we were pretty close.

"He's alive. I know" Solo said, he looked off remembering his old comrade. Small glimmer in his eye stood out as he looked off into the distance remembering long ago battles and fallen comrades.

"Have you seen him?" I asked, looking upon Solo wing as he slowly returned his gaze back to me.

"last week we were under attack, my squad was pinned down there was a armor Colum advancing on us ,and we did not have any anti-armor weapons, it looked like we were all going to die holding some useless dirt, but out of nowhere a black jet came in, it destroyed the tanks and the rest of the enemy's and all that we heard over the radio was "still alive … buddy?" right there my last doubt was removed and I knew that he was still alive. He's out there somewhere like me, on a border trying to figure out what the meaning to war is." Pixie said, gazing out the window, looking at the small craters where missiles had impacted.

"Wow, have you ever considered it was just a recording, a fake?" I asked, writing more on my notepad. It was so surprising that things like this could happen and no one would ever find out except for random myths and legends popping up.

"That's not the end, later that night I got on the radio and asked if he knew what he was fighting for. I did not expect a response but I had nothing better to do, a couple of hours later I heard a response, it came from the dark he said "I have, and I will show you one day" that was the first time since the world changer that I had heard from him."Pixie finished, leaning back in his chair, the creek of old wood filled the air, the gunshots had faded away leaving a awkward silence.

"One day I will learn the true meaning of war, what a border means, what they are and why they are here, but until then I will keep fighting."

"Do you ever think you'll see him again?" I asked, shocked by what I had just heard. It was weird enough for a fighter to come out of nowhere and destroy multiple heavily armored vehicles but it was no mistake what had happened later that night.

"One day, One day I will find what I am a, fighting for , what borders are, and when I do then is where I will see him and when."


	4. Drunken demon

_Ring ring ring_

" what's that?" somebody drunkenly demanded out from a position at the bar. The sound echoed in the bar, bouncing off the smooth surfaces of worn wood , patterns had been carved into the worn surface years ago but recently they had deteriorate to a barely noticeable etching on the wood.

"I think it's your phone sir." The bartender responded, handing the patron another shot, the dark brown liquid swishing as it was slided across the polished wood surface. He gazed into the liquid, seeing a reflection of himself , heavily distorted due to the waves of the liquid.

The bar seemed to know everything from his view point , the way he thought about it was a never ending bartender, always there , never forgetting your problems ,your strife, it was so eternal in the ever-changing waves of destiny.

" whatever, what I've been through it doesn't matter, just keep those things coming" The patron ordered, quickly chugging the shot , he quickly slammed the glass down onto the wood, making a shallow indentation and almost shattering the glass, it shaked for a couple of second but eventually stopped, to a deadly stop…

****far across town****

"Fuck, we're on alert and our ace pilot won't pick up his phone!" the Base Commander yelled, slamming the phone onto the table. The conference table shook furiously, almost sending Pixy falling to the ground, he quickly regained his balance and continued to lean against the table.

"I'm crushed, I'm no ace?" Pixy asked, a laughable face appeared on him, nearly sending the commander into laughter but the reality of the situation took it away and Pixy put a more serious look on his face.

"Sir, I think I can go get him, if you can tell me where he is-"Pixy began to offer, taking a seat in one of the conference chairs, giving a solid push of the table he began to roll away, almost slamming into one of the walls he kicked off it , spinning back into his original position he steadied out . He looked into the commanders eyes for a second but then broke contact.

"Go! He's at some bar! Bring him back before we get bombed to the Stone Age." The commander grabbed a piece of paper, warm of a nearby printer and walked up to pixy , shoving it at Pixy; he walked away leaving Pixy staring at the paper, its white crisp lines and the black lettering made him admire it for a second , lines always seemed to be a double edged sword.

_Seroku_

_Northern outskirts_

_Greenwood 4821_

_Gin and the seven deadly sins_

****10 minutes later****

A man slowly trudged forward through the deep snow , his wool coat covered in a light coat of white , flurries were still coming down and the wind had picked up , making it look like a fully fledged blizzard. The man continued through the snow , a Neon sign began to glow ahead , its snow covered lights stood out in the night , but it was still covered , still covered.

He continued to head to the place , walking past snow covered cars and signs, he continued towards the sign , trudging through the snow. The old wood buildings of the town blended in gracefully with the snow , almost making it serene , but the neon signs and the flashy lights and the concrete walls , industrialization kills the beauty of the world.

Something was escaping the thick walls of the bar , something that was all too familiar , incredibly loud music , music preferred by a specific ace pilot, one that tended to point himself out in a crowed, even if it was not on purpose, he spread his wings and unleashed his presence , but he just walked away.

The solid oak door to the bar exploded open to reveal a man, covered in a light layer of elegantly white snow, he slowly dusted off the snow and walked up to the bar , carefully avoiding drinks and half unconscious patrons.

"Have you seen a man, should have been in here about 5 foot 8, fancies himself some sort of demon lord." Pixy asked the bar tender.

"Ya." He pointed to a pile of clothing on the floor holding up a bottle of vodka, he must have collapsed rather recently, no one had bothered to help him get up but that was the type of place it was.

"Hey you can help me get him up?" Pixy asked a service man, bending over to pick up the pile of clothes of the floor, it weighed a lot more then it looked.

"Why should I do that?" he said standing up, he was about a foot taller than Pixy and was probably strong enough to carry a F22, he was covered in head to foot tattoos, mostly decorated in long dead army traditions, company symbols .Flags, always symbols.

"Were you in the convoy today coming to this wonderful city?" Pixy asked, brushing the final bits of the snow off his jacket.

"How does that matter?"

"Just answer the question."

"Ya, so what?"

"Well he "Pixy began, motioning to the mess on the floor. It was odd how harmless he looked from there, on the floor. In the air he had once taken on a entire battalion single handedly, but now he was not that, he wasn't weak but he was not strong, he was practically invisible.

"He doesn't like being referred to, he is the demon lord of the round table!" the mess on the floor began, taking another swig of the bottle.

"He was the one that saved your life earlier." Pixy announced, beginning to pick The Demon lord up.

"O well thanks for that." The ground pounder announced, picking up the other side of the half up man.

They slowly stood him up, each of them on one side. They slowly let go, the demon lord stood for a second, if it could be called standing up, a bit longer then a standard stagger, but not long enough to be called standing up. He took a glimpse, looking around to take in his surroundings.

"BINGO FUEL!" the demon lord announced as he collapsed onto a table, his weight collapsing the central support of the table onto the floor, leaving a trail of black devastation across the path from the bar to the door.

**** 10 minutes later****

"You have no clue what I do for you!" Pixy announced as they slowly trudged through the snow, it was slowly coming down , it was almost beautiful at this time of night but it was so cold, bitterly cold, deadly cold.

"O common you just ruined all my fun!" The Demon lord drunkenly responded, stumbling though the deep snow, his foot steps only steadied by the reinforcement of Pixy.

They slowly approached the base, the snow covered fighters standing out like a sword on a mountain, concrete edges jutted out from the ground, sharp but beautiful. Like a razor, a sharp edge waiting to be cut.

"Why'd you get me anyway?" The demon lord asked.

"Cause there's a couple of bombers flying towards us and the only thing sent out to intercept them was the 427th.

"The 427?"A face of disgust fell over the demon lord, the 427th tactical squadron was full of failures and rejects, and they only had like 4 successful missions and had lost so many pilots it set a record.

****half a hour later****

"Here he is sir." Pixy announced, barely holding up the demon lord, it was obvious that he was resting most of his weight on Pixy, and considering he was barely able to hold up himself.

"He's a drunk?" the commander questioned, smelling the alcohol on his breath.

"Apparently sir, but he's our drunk." Pixy responded, setting down the demon lord in the chair.

"Well we're on alert so put him somewhere." The commander announced, walking away.

"TO MY FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE!" The demon lord yelled, surprisingly standing up. He slowly staggered towards his room, followed by cipher.

The demon lord slung the door open and walked into the barren room; at the rate the allied forces were advancing they never really had a time to settle down. The demon lord walked up to his bed and reached under, taking out a crate. He slowly opened it to reveal a stack of highly caffeinated energy drinks. He through one at Cipher and cracked on open for himself.

"So we actually got to fly today?" The demon lord asked, seemingly more sober.

"Hope fully not." Pixy responded.

_Thud thud thud_

"all pilots scramble! Bombers incoming!" a voice boomed over the com system.

"Gota go seeya later!" Pixy yelled over the bombs and the sirens, covering the air.

"I'm coming!" The demon lord yelled back, trying to stagger out of the room, he almost fell over but caught himself. Cipher tried to help and catch him , but it was unnecessary.

"Get the fuck into bed!" Pixy yelled, the bombs steadily growing closer.

"Like hell, go get to your fighter I'll meet ya in the sky." Cipher yelled back, they both knew that there was no time to argue and they had to get airborne immediately. Pixy quickly ran off, taking out a radio and yelling commands to the ground crew.

After for a couple of seconds of searching for his own radio he quickly ran over to the bases communication system and slammed on a button.

"Someone get my fighter ready, focus air defense on the runway and hangers." He ordered, he began to slowly stumbling to the hangar. The white tiles of the floor gleamed incredibly brightly and the light shining through the windows exploding with the brilliance of a thousand stars.

"Who is this?" a voice asked over the system, heavy machine gun fire coming from the other side of the comm. The warzone outside was shining with even more light as Cipher slowly walked on.

"The Demon lord Of the Round Table." He casually responded, pushing the button on a com about 15 feet away, he slowly proceeded to walk towards the exit of the building, he had to get to high fighter and into the air, even if he wasn't an expert ace , it was still a good idea to not be a sitting duck on the ground.

Ciphers pace slowly quickened but at the end it ended up turning into a dead run for the hangar, more bombs were being dropped and the ground continued to shake, worse and worse. The lights on the ceiling rattled the roar of jet engines above sent shockwaves through the building.

He finally got to the door on the side of the base, the hangar was about 50 feet away. Shoving it open he managed to glimpse Pixy at the end of his take off, finally in the air. The red wing of his f-15 blending into the background, the rest of the aircraft shone , the metallic light gave it a brilliance, but it was also a giant target on the aircraft. Cipher quickly ran, to the hangar were his aircraft was held, it was untouched by the devastation, snow covered it, glimmering strangely in the red fiery night.

Cipher slowly approached a door at the end of the hangar and fumbled with his keys as he clumsily, yet hurriedly opened the door, slamming it shut after he had entered the large hallow building. Loud music filled the air, Rock, It was strange but the music overpowered the loud battle outside, he quickly rushed over to his plain which was being refueled and rearmed by a team of mechanics. The rest of the aircraft looked neglected, mangled pieces laying around the hangar and mechanics running around furiously trying to fix the fighters.

"HEY CAN ANY OF YOU FLY!" Cipher yelled, trying to be heard over the loud music, there were a number of aircraft in the hanger and a couple of them looked flyable.

"Sort of!" One of the Mechanics responded, welding on a broken wing to a damaged fighter, trying to make it flyable. The sparks were one of the many sources of illumination that oddly lit the room.

"Sort of?" cipher asked as he ran over to his Wyvern, the experimental aircraft required considerable maintenance and was incredibly difficult to find spare parts but it ended up being more then worth it. Its active-camo system made the fighter a dull concrete grey, but it still stood out compared to the rest of the hangar.

"I'm new." He stated, over the loud music as he finished arming one of the missiles on the wyvern. A missile locked into the internal bay and a engineer appeared from under the aircraft he yelled over the sounds of welding and music.

"He's a nugget sir." The sentence this time was not a insult, just a mere fact.

Cipher, climbing onto a wing and then diving into the cockpit responded "whatever just get in the air and follow me."

"Which air craft should I take sir?" The nugget asked, looking at the aircraft scattered in the hangar. The amount of aircraft inside the massive hangar was staggering, as far as the eye could see were birds of war.

"Just pick one, and stay close to me, Pixy and the AA." Cipher responded, kicking away the unused latter and shutting the cockpit.

Through the glass the demon lord commanded a mechanic to open the door, his commanding presence ruling over the music. He also motioned to one of the chief mechanics the pile of weapons that stood leaning against the side of the hangar, the chief understood and started asking for volunteers at least The demon lord presumed.

"This is The demon lord of the round table, any squads nearby proceed to cover the runway, me and a nugget gona try to get in the air." The Demon lord Announced, using the aircrafts radio to transmit his commands over the battlefield.

"OK, you all heard the man, you 3 in the black windows and the shitty flying, cover the fucking runway!" Pixy yelled, a fighter in the air changed direction and started a nose dive directly into the ground, right before it hit it pulled up, firing a volley of bullets through a Belkan fighter , exploding into a massive fireball, shrapnel littering the ground. He proceeded to fly above the runway at extreme speed, destroying enemy fighters, thwarting the belkan attempted to destroy the base and claim air superiority.

"YOU HEARD THE MAN COVER THE DEMON LORD!"A man shouted over the radio, presumably the flight lead of the 3 fighters.

quickly, the 3 aforementioned fighters followed suit, but with less drastic methods of losing altitude, But they too did protect the sacred runway from the aggressors.

Cipher slowly made it out to the runway, a couple of brave and ferocious mechanics covered him and the nugget with the AA weapons scattered throughout the base. Cipher quickly ran his fingers of the controls, his fighter was different, stronger, sleeker, it always knew what the pilot was thinking and how to react, it used a more advanced control system, dual joysticks and pedals for accelerations and control over every fin and stabilizer. Finally a keyboard gave control over the rest of the systems, greatly reducing the number of controls on the fighter.

He quickly booted up the OS of the fighter and started to pressurize the fighter, although highly impractical and very fragile system, it gave a freedom to pilots that allowed them a greater view over the field of battle.

The turbines on the Wyvern sent a wave of thrust shooting out from the back of the aircraft; it slowly increased speed, followed by the nugget, struggling to get the aircraft off the ground. They slowly climbed, the other aircraft covering them as they engaged into the mass of explosions and metal in the air.

The demon lord continued to climb, eventually rising above the clouds, coming up to where he could finally see the whole battle field, the bombers were turning around, beginning another run on the base, the enemy fighters were holding their own, it was clear that they were only trying to distract the allied fighters as the bombed slowly turned the base into a crater, they only released a few bombs each run so they were almost undetectable.

There was a plethora of chatter among the allied fighters, The demon lord blocked them out of the mind, there was only him and the battle, he was going to destroy his opponent.

"All forces engage the bombers that are heading in from the east; the fighters are just a distraction." The demon Lord commanded, a change in his tone gave him a commanding presence.

All of the allied fighters turned direction, leaving the fighters up to the base defenses; they quickly approached the previously invisible bombers, ripping them to shreds. The demon Lord himself flew in and took out one of the bombers, firing a missile that hit the bomber in the central Bombay, exploding in midair. He closed into another bomber and shredded that one to with his guns, sending it slowly plummeting to the ground. The allied forces quickly engaged the rest of the bombers.

When the last of the bombers were finished off the fighters quickly returned to the base, unloading all remaining ordinance on the Belkan fighters, sending the last remaining fighters retreating at max speed to their base of operations.

"Now if you don't mind I'm going to go in, land, grab a sandwich, and go to sleep." Cipher said, punctuating the sentence with a loud yawn.

"This is control, the runway is not clear I repeat not clear do not attempt to land." The control tower frantically ordered.

"Well then make it clear, my metabolism is like burning at 200% and I haven't eaten for like 12 hours so either clear the runway or get me some food. And it also appears that there is no fuel left and my reactor won't warm up for like 2 hours."Cipher responded, the hunger had just begun to naw at him but it was like a fire, a blaze within him.

"ooo the engines just cut out so I'm coming in."

He slowed his Wyvern, and began to approach the airfield, ground crew scrambling out of the way to dodge the wild jet. He did not need to turn on the brakes; he was already losing momentum and velocity, the systems on the jet cutting out one by one.

"And you said it wasn't clear." The Demon Lord said, pulling the aircraft into the hangar where it had previously occupied. Belkan and Allied fighter littered the ground in burn out shells, a sad byproduct of the battle.

He quickly jumped out of the aircraft, landing incredibly ungracefully on the concrete floor, to his surprise he was confronted by a very angry base commander.

"YOU TOOK OFF IN A MILLION DOLLAR JET WHILE DRUNK AND TO TOP IT OFF NO FLIGHT SUIT OR MASK!" the commander stared the Demon lord in the face, trying to break him.

"One it's my jet, you guys just maintains it. Two it doesn't say Allied forces anywhere on my uniform, hell I'm not even wearing a uniform. Three suits and mask cramp my style,. Fourth and final I never wear the aforementioned shit, Have fun." Cipher began to walk away but the commander slowly stopped him.

"You do notice your wearing an Osean shirt?" The commander stated, the previous hatred gone from his voice, turning into an annoyance.

Looking down at his shirt cipher slowly responded:

"O ya I am." The shirt was had a giant Osean flag on it, the blue and white blended in well to the background. The snow and dull moon light fell over the metal, making it have a almost dull blue shade.

"Well I'm gona go and eat or something" Cipher walked out into the wind and slowly walked to the main complex of the base.

****later****

Cipher slowly stirred the potatoes with the fork, he had been doing this for the last 20 minutes but he was hungry, and the food did look good.

Pixy walked in from the buffet, a plate loaded full with enough food to feed a small army.

"The nuggets still alive." Pixie nonchalantly said as he put the plate down on the table and turned the chair around, leaning on the reversed chair he began to devour the food.

"You're eating habits are as atrocious as usual." Cipher responded as bits of food began to fly everywhere, covering the table and surrounding areas. It was amazing how no one seemed to care, but being a top ace and having the combat skills of a martial artist let you get away with anything , including food covering the mess.

"Unlike you I haven't been on the ground for the last hour or two."Pixy responded, Cipher pushed his plate onto a stack of half finished plates and reached over to take a half a sandwich from Pixies massive plate, Pixie jokingly growled at the approaching hand but continued to eat as the food was stolen.

"Now last time I checked didn't arks squad has 4 plains? I only saw 3 but it was pretty chaotic?" Cipher asked, finally giving in and devouring the half a sandwich, he reached in and stole the other half and continued to eat.

"Ya the chick…." Pixy began.

"Nova?" Cipher inquired?

"Ya, she's on maternity leave-"He was cut off as Cipher exploded into a storm of laughter, he almost fell out of his chair.

"Yup, anyway –"

"COMMANDER ON DECK!" someone yelled and the whole room except The demon Lord and Pixie stood up, the battle of the commanding presence was silent but astounding. Cipher reached over to the table of one of the standing at attention airman's tables. He grabbed another half of a sandwich and muttered a "thanks".

"Relax airman, just hear to grab some grub, power is out in officers mess won't be long, but you all did well up there, keep it up." The commander said, gazing over the men standing at attention, they slowly eased up as he finished his speech.

The men slowly sat down, a shuffling of chairs and tables filled the air. Cipher gazed back at Pixy and the pile of half finished food in-between them.

Cipher pushed all the food related products away from him and rested his head on his arms.

"I heard that the military personnel will have to pull triple getting the base back into fighting order, nice to be mercs." Pixy said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table.

Slowly, one by one people left the mess hall, leaving Pixy and Cipher the only remainders.

"Good night." Pixy lazily yelled, sitting up, he walked past cipher to the door, patting him on the shoulder.

Before that Ciphers world had been fading in and out but then it turned to a solid black.

Note please review, that's how I make this story better ps thanks Stonehenge.

A/N sorry about earlier but I think I got it fixed, it was just a extrmeley large scale typo


	5. Concrete and Blood

"When I and the demon lord first met we were just business partners." Pixie explained, waving his hand through the air.

"At first we just were trying to rack up kills and make as much money as we possibly could, and get out before Ustio was blown into a smoldering crater." Pixie continued.

"Well you two were, before the war two of the richest mercenaries in the world." I stated, looking at the pilot in the warzone. It was strange how he had descended from the heavens to hell.

"For him money dint matter, he flew to fly, that was where he belonged and as long as we were mercenaries our fuel ammo and maintenance was 100% free." Pixie explained, remembering the days when he and his legendary wingman had ruled the skies, an angel and a demon ruling the heavens.

"but anyway, continuing … As the war slowly progressed we changed, we fought for the people of ustio and became the most trusted guardians of that country, at a point… ya , at a point we were both offered citizenship, and enough metals to fill a small town."

"Weren't you two just mercenaries, most mercenaries I know are cold hearted bastards? Kind of hard to believe that you could earn that." I asked, looking at the war torn veteran, a spark of life sprang into him when he remembered the "old days".

"people change." There was so much meaning in two words it was staggering.

"GET DOWN!" Solo wing yelled, tackling me to the floor. A number of bullets flew through where I had been just seconds ago.

"What is going on?" I yelled, looking at solo wing, his eyes had a fire in them not seen since 15 years ago, the crumbling concrete sent waves of dust like particles flying through the air

"Someone is shooting at us, fucking eruseans." The ground began to shake as loud explosions and turning of gears entered into our hearing range. "and that would be tanks!" Pixie yelled as he grabbed me and began to rush down stairs, the crumbling building was missing stairs and walls but the adrenaline going through me powered my every step.

"See that building down the street, the only still standing 1?" Pixie hurriedly yelled.

"Ya!" I yelled back.

"That's our base, Run there as fast as you can, ill cover us!" Pixie yelled.

We began to run down the street, half way down pixie turned around to face a mig-21 that was pulling a strafing run on us, he opened fire with his AK, hitting a critical part of the aircraft, it was sent flying off with a trail of black smoke behind it. The aircraft was unable to pullout of the run and began to lose speed, it crashed back down into earth into a cluster of buildings about a mile away from our position, and Pixie continued the run to the base, tracer rounds and fiery rockets from the bases defenses illuminating the sky.

Pixie quickly caught up to me, at the time I was a little out of shape and he was a guerilla fighter so the math wasn't that hard to do.

We slowly approached the base, there was no more interference so it was relatively easy, and when we approached the base we had to dodge dragon's teeth and trenches. There was a thick concrete wall, it had begun to crumble but it was still a formidable barrier. Pixie ran up to the gate and took out a key. He thrust the key into a socket, activating the motor the powered a thick steel gate, the door slowly rolled up to reveal a barrier of sand bags 20 feet in with heavy machine guns and snipers all facing the gate.

"Its Pixie let him through!" Voice came over the comm. System, we proceeded as the soldiers slowly let down there guard. We jumped over the sand bag barrier and proceeded into a worn down building, it had thick concrete and the building was filled with bullet holes, in the courtyard there were craters were shells had once impacted. They proceeded to a door of the building; he took out a keycard, its bright plastic shining brilliantly in the afternoon light.

He quickly uncovered a locking system, it had 3 locks on it , keycard number pad and thumb scanner, this would usually be considered overkill. But when you are in a warzone where everyone, regardless of side is wearing rags and is fighting, using the same weapons.

Pixy quickly sliced the card through a reader, a light flashed green, he quickly then punched in a code , another light turned green, he finally pushed his thumb up to a reader, another light turned green and a lock on the door popped open.

"Little help with this?" Pixy asked, attempting to push the solid steel door open, but with very little successes. I joined in and together we were able to move it, on the other side it was like some bunker, shelled for so long that there was broken debris on the floor with cobwebs growing out of it, and the working lights were hanging by threads and had dust caked on them.

I slowly began to wander off, but Pixy grabbed me and pulled me down a hallway, we continued to walk through the bombed out corridors, the few people that we say had dead faces, they looked like they had been living here for so long that it had become their home, it was the most depressing thing I had ever seen.

We eventually came to a room, it had some broken sign on it but it did look significantly more clean then the rest of the crippled base, pixy opened the door and strided in, dragging me with him.

"Sir, this is bad, rollers, aircraft and probably infantry. I haven't seen a campaign like this since the campaign in Novenst." Pixie said, laying his AK on a table lying in-between him and the Commander, his insignia marked him as a Lieutenant.

"Early 95 right?" The commander asked, studying a map on the table where Pixie set down his AK.

"Ya, it was a complete blood bath over a million on each side. Now back to more dire matters, there coming down central and probably more." Pixie said, point to a central road on the map, he moved small figures that symbolized tanks and infantry, combined arms unit.

"You never cease to amaze me Pixy, mercenary, ace pilot, cook, and recently strategist." The commander responded, studying the pieces that Pixy had moved.

"Cook?" I interrupted, surprisingly looking at Pixy

"ya, I can make a mean soufflé but back to topic, if we move Tach's and Omegas forces to here , we could destroy the enemy forces, if we" Pixy his hand over to a artillery unit in the far south and moved them into the base. "We would be able to destroy the enemy armor easily and pick off the infantry at will." Pixy then moved all of the pieces at the current base over to the heavily fortified airfield.

"Nice theory but-"The commander started but I cut in before he could finish.

"How do you move artillery several miles through this terrain?" I asked, scribbling stuff down in my notepad as I studied the map.

"That part is easy; the real question is how do we get the word to Omega." At the time I did not know but I alter found out that there was a tunnel system that could transport almost anything anywhere in that city, that's the only upper hand we really had in that war.

"Mm, good point last thing I heard was that he was in deep shit down town."

"We are all in deep shit in this town."

"Hellhole."


	6. First Flight

"got much sleep last night?" Someone asked, presumably Pixy, sounded like him. Cipher opened his eyes to stare at the green surface at the table below him, he groaned .

Cipher then proceeded to lift his head to see Pixy and Wizard one, the leader of an Osean squad that had arrived on the base recently, it appeared that Pixy had known him for a while. The squad leader looked like he had been up for a week straight, but he just like Pixy when it came to eating food , shrapnel flying everywhere. From the look on everyone's faces and the food that was being served it looked like it was breakfast. It looked like most of the base had been up all night trying to bring power and defenses back online.

"we had to work all night just to clear the runways, but the base is still incredibly damaged and barely any of the fighters are operational, and finally most power is out on the base." The Osean said, tiredness emanating from his voice.

"Hey." Cipher muttered, taking a long gulp of coffee which he had presumed was put there for him.

"good morning!" Pixy loudly announced, slamming a fist on the table, lifting the contents of the table into the air.

"nice stunt you pulled last night." The squad leader said, continuing to rushingly consume his food .

"I try, what's going on today?" Cipher asked, stretching his arms in the chair.

"Repair work."

"Nothing."

"ok " a slight laughter arose from cipher "I'm going to go with nothing."

"B shift report to repair." A voice rang out over the comm. System.

Wizard stood up and announced " I have to go, but remember, why do we need borders?"

"what was that about?" Cipher asked a couple seconds later, after The Osean had left, leaving the two of them to ponder his question.

"its complicated, but what do you wanna do today?" Pixy asked, pushing in his plate into the center of the table.

"what ever."

Suddenly someone came running in , bursting through the doors of the mess hall and nearly tripping over tables, it was soon obvious that he was heading for them, he suddenly stopped in front of the table, out of breath.

The runner quickly saluted.

"we're not military, drop the salute" Cipher said , looking up at the tired messenger.

"yes sir, your needed to report to base commander, he has a volunteer mission for you." He managed out, noticeably breathing harder.

"dismissed" Pixy ordered, to the worn out messenger who ran off.

****30 minutes later****

"nice to see you to took your time" The commander said, motioning to two chairs on the other side of his desk. They slowly walked over and sat down, they were made of polished wood, the desk was mahogany with designs carved into it, the polished wood gleamed like a sun in the mountains light.

" so what's this volunteer assignment?" pixy asked, picking up a rubix cube that had been laid on the edge of the desk.

"Since the beginning of the war, as you know over 90% of our air force has been destroyed, since then we have been struggling to rebuild." The commander said , passing them both vanilla folders.

"old news" Cipher said, grabbing the rubix cube from Pixy and began to vigorously solve it.

" Most of our instructors themselves are out in the field, this makes us in a very interesting position."

"so you want us to-" Cipher began.

"the base isn't even operational" Pixy added

"they've cleared basic flying but they are still nuggets, we need you two to train them, you are the leading world aces, and there will be a bonus" The commander finished, looking into both of their eyes.

"100 grand a day Osean." Pixy stated.

"and accesses to everything, R&D , top secret files everything." Cipher added

The commander laughed, "I think I can have that done, and command wants me to give you two vacation, two weeks off combat pay." He said , relief spreading over his face.

"well assemble them , guess should get to see them." Cipher said, returning the rubix cube to the desk , solved.

The commander picked up a phone on his desk , setting it to intercom he announced:

"training squad report to briefing room one ." he announced then turned to the team "have fun." Galm team stood up and left. They slowly started to walk to the briefing room.

"have you ever done this before?"

"no, you?"

"nope"

"fun"

**** 10 minutes later****

Pixy and Cipher walked into the room full of nuggets, all fidgeting in their flight suits. Cipher walked up to the podium, Pixy leaning on a wall a couple of feet away.

"hello nuggets." Cipher said into the microphone, emanating across the room of 50 nuggets, a chorus of "hello sir" came back. It was amazing how energetic they could be over such little things.

"Now first we are god, you will listen to every command what we say is law , what we say is the truth, this is live or die people." The demon lord practically shouted into the mic, all the nuggets sitting up straight.

"Now as your god I would like to say you're all morons." A shocked expressions spread throughout the nuggets, and Pixie started laughing, echoing out into the room.

" this base is in shambles, I don't even think we have enough Planes for all of you, you did not have to wear your flight suits, well technically we never do but…."Cipher continued , almost laughing at the strangled nuggets.

"for today you will all assist in the repair process of the base , report to the runway, that's where they are leading up repair operations" Pixy continued.

"Well go …. But you, go get some coffee for your god" the shocked nugget look to Pixy for help but all he said was "grab some for me to"

"Yes sir, sirs" The nugget said and began to run off, following the crowd of nuggets. They all blended into one another , there olive green flight suits creating a wall of solid green.

"I am god?" Pixy asked, taking a seat in one of the chairs below.

"it worked didn't it?" Cipher responded, taking a chair that leaned against the wall, he looked down at Pixy , who was below the ledge were the podium and his chair stood.

"so what we gona do tomorrow then? Prayer to god?" Pixy asked

"I did say we are god, but I was thinking if we could , get in the air see what we got."

"ya, 50 hands will help." He was referring to the repair operations.

Someone opened the door to reveal the nugget carrying two cups of scolding hot coffee. He walked up to Pixy, handing him the paper mug, and then proceeded to Cipher.

"if I may ask sir what will we be doing tomorrow?" The young man asked, slowly edging towards the door.

"taking to the sky, if we can, wanna see what you guys got." Pixy said, taking a sip of the almost boiling liquid.

"and if we can't?"

"more of the same, have fun" Cipher finished. The nugget walked out , quickening his pace as he got closer to the door.

" so any ideas ?" Pixy asked, setting down the coffee and leaning back in the chair.

"ya, I think I got some"

****little bit later****

_Swish_

"that was a good one!" Pixy exclaimed, looking as the small ball flew through the air, landing almost at the edge of their vision range, landing on the tar with a barely audible _thunk._

"ya, but we should set up markers or something." Cipher responded as he grabbed another small white ball and set it on the metal Tee.

"Ya, it's not that this airfield is usually used for more than golf…." Pixy said, taking a swing, gracefully sending the small white ball soaring through the cloudy air.

"Not bad" Cipher commented, taking a swing at the small ball , it was odd how they blended into the white cloudy air, like a dove , soaring through the air until it came violently crashing down.

A couple of second passed, with only a swoosh of drivers contacting the surlyn shell of the balls.

"Have you ever considered a world without borders?"

"That came out of nowhere" Cipher responded, a slightly shocked, or more likely confused expression on his face.

"Seriously." Pixy stated again, looking for a answer.

"Well there would be illegal immigrants everywhere and polar bears in Osea." Cipher responded, almost laughing as he said it.

"No I mean, One country, All united no more boundaries no more borders, no more wars."

" it would never work, we have borders to separate ideologies, a melting pot on that scale is a recipe for disaster, and who would run this abomination?" The Demon lord asked, almost yelling in his response, his eyes going into the depths of Pixies mind.

"do you really think that way?" Pixy asked, returning his gaze with the same amount of intensity.

"ya"

Seconds passed, and they eventually got back to their game , it made everything else fade away, something so simple but with so much meaning.

Is it the technique or the power of the swing?

"Why'd you ask?"

"Just wondering."

****late at night, undisclosed location****

"Is he with us?"

"No"

"That's a shame, take him out?"

"No, we might be able to turn him later and he's a good friend"

"Is he onto you?"

"Don't think so, but he's smart."

****late at night****

"this is boring!" Cipher announced spinning in his chair, the world started to fall apart, all that remained was cipher, Pixy and some beeping lights.

"Well we tried golf ,we tried being mechanics, we tried going into town, we tried turning in early." Pixy responded, boringly clicking buttons on the laptop which he was staring intently into.

"What about getting drunk?" Cipher asked, finally looking at Pixy.

"I believe that falls into getting into town."Pixy said, setting his laptop on the table and pushing away from the table.

"bleck lets go." Cipher announced, standing up and walking towards the door. The world was still spinning but with a goal, something to do, it started to quiet down .

****later****

"is there a reason we broke into the Officers mess ?"

"well technically we are allowed."

" ya when the powers out and there's not even food?"

"yup, even then"

"so why are we here?" Pixy asked again , a couple of seconds later.

"to get drunk."

After reaching the bar Cipher motioned for Pixies flashlight, he passed it over, and after a couple of seconds Cipher placed a metal case on the bar.

"And we broke into here to steal?"

"Liberate"

"ya sure."

Cipher opened the box, cold emanating from it.

"Whiskey?"

"100 year old whiskey"

****later****

Pixy moved through the dark desks and chairs, finally reaching one of the windows, it had been shot off, leaving a opening to a 3 foot ledge. Cipher was sitting there, his feet dangling off the ledge and a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Nothing like a beer on a pier."Cipher said, gazing out onto the mountains surrounding the base.

"Do this a lot?"

"ya , not sure if I ever told you but I grew up in Phin city, the board walks, the fountains, the parks, the moon at night shone like silver in the sky." Nostalgia shone in his eyes as he gazed through the clouds to the moon, remembering days he had spent with his friends, doing the same exact thing.

"What's that?" Pixy asked, through blurry eyes looking at a light , blinking outside of the base.

"landing light, probably for a chopper or something." The signal light started blinking rapidly, and a light in the sky started to blink back.

"still just a landing light?" Pixy asked , pushing the subject.

"Signal light."

****mourning****

"o my god my head is on fire!" Pixy yelled, laying on the barrier of the window and the ledge.

"That's a hangover, looks like we should be able to fly." Cipher responded, dropping a empty bottle off the ledge and watching it fall and explode on the concrete.

"o great…" Pixy muttered as he looked into the control tower, it was swarming with airman, trying to get squads and supply runs coordinated.

"And the reason they haven't kicked us out?"

"you've got two legends that only work for you because you pay them well, not a good idea to piss them off."

"well im gona go check in with the mechanics, see if we got enough Plaines. Was thinking we see what the nuggets got."

"ya sure whatever" Pixy responded, leaning against the window, it looked as though he was on fire from the expression on his face , it was obvious he was in a lot of agony. It was Surprising a mercenary like him never drank, it was surprising a lot of the things he did.

Cipher quickly got to the main hangar, it was surprisingly untouched from the previous bombings, but most of the aircraft had been outside and had been crippled in the bombings.

He entered the room to be hit again, by a wave of rock n roll it was surprising that the base commander allowed this, or that they could get any work done with the music so loud.

"hey, got 50 Plaines for my new nuggets?" Cipher yelled over the music, the beats and rhythms were loud enough to shake the very foundations that the hangar was built on.

"ya, they sent 50 training Plaines down here for the recruits, none of this would have been possible without Osea, they have been sending us tons of supplies!" the chief yelled back.

"O cool, can you get them ready, gona take the nuggets for a flight around 12!" Cipher yelled back, turning around to stroll out of the hangar.

He slowly walked to the main building of the base, it was amazing how much it changed over the last 2 days, there were still blast marks and small craters but the base was operational, surprisingly.

He finally reached the briefing room, Pixy had a cup of coffee in his hand and the nugget ran over to him, handing him a steaming mug.

"Thanks."

"No, thank you sir."

Cipher walked up to the podium and leaned over to Pixy.

"We got the Plaines, you're up." Cipher gave him a gentle nudge forward.

"today we will be taking you nuggets in there air and see what you know, we will be going over basic maneuvers flying techniques and so on, I have a small feeling that they rushed your training, what little you did get due to our situation."

A nugget raised his hand and pixy nodded at him.

"What Plaines will we be flying today ,sir?.

Cipher walked up and announced.

"The great and powerful f- 5 , courtesy from our friends in Osea."

"Now you have 5 minutes to get to the main hangar and man your plain MOVE IT!" Pixy yelled.

The nuggets all quickly stood up, and a wall of green flight suits flew past as they ran to their fighters.

"This will be fun." Cipher sarcastically stated.

"Yes, teaching some rejects how to fight belkan aces, at least were getting payed well."

"That's an understatement."

They started to walk towards the hangar, it was half a mile away but it always went by incredibly quickly.

****5 minutes later****

The Demon Lord swung open the door to the hangar, it was a mess with trainees and mechanics scrambling to either get in the aircraft or to get them ready, he slowly walked to his plain, its sharp edges stood out like a cat in a herd of dogs. Cipher jumped up onto one of the wing and walked along the body to the cockpit, slowly sliding in. He sealed the canopy then started to boot up the plain, it booted up quickly when compared to other aircraft but it was too slow for him.

"Who's ready to do some flying?" He asked over the radio, nonchalantly talking.

"Me sir!" a trainee yelled enthusiastically.

"Ya same!" another one replied, it was odd how energetic they can be about random and unimportant events.

"Get in the air as soon as possible, we wanna get this show on the road." Cipher said as he booted up the engine, another feature of his aircraft was a standard ground engine, he did not have to wait to be taxied, and he could just take off.

"Pixy, how long till the taxis?" Cipher asked, slowly crawling out of the hangar.

"10 minutes, unlike you we all don't have super advanced million dollar aircraft." Pixy responded.

"This is Cipher I will be taking off momentarily, I got 51 nuggets in tow."

"Roger, skis are clear, control out."

"51?"

"Yup."

"It's not that I am the most experienced ace in the war or anything….."

"yup"

The aircraft quickly accelerated as it sped down the runway, markers on the tar passing by quickly as his speed increased.

"This is Cipher, can you guys hurry up the taxis on those Plaines, I feel so lonely up here." Cipher said as he glanced down at the hangar, presumably full of aircraft waiting to take off.

"Sorry cipher, due to the raid, they were stored in a secure building, its taking a while to get them over to the runway."Control tower responded, a female voice running over the radio waves.

"Well then keep me company." Cipher said a romantic tone in his voice.

She laughed, filling the airwaves with a unusual sound in a time of war.

"Cipher, stop hitting on my girl." Pixy said, half angry half joking.

"Then get up here and bite me!"

"Boys, your giving me a headache."

"Sorry to interrupt but are we not suppose to talk about non mission related details?" a nugget asked.

"when you're a mercenary ace you get privileges, being able to use the control tower as your personal drinking spot, getting paid a ungodly amount of money, getting invited to the officers mess-"

"Being able to banter?" another nugget asked?

"Yup" Pixy continued.

Minutes passed by as Cipher circled the base , the small vehicles were moving to the hangar but extremely slowly, it was amazing that a vehicle that could haul several tons moved that slowly .

"If I'm up here any longer your gona need to send me a tanker."

"Sorry about this, but they are just launching now."

"Pixy launching!" Solo yelled as red wings flashed by on the ground.

"One second going over check list…" a trainee said as he was sitting on the tarmac.

"Rifleman Launching!" he yelled as the F-5 f began to accelerate.

"Rain launching…"

"Star fury launching…" another 48 of these happened until the sky was covered with aircraft.

"Now that we are finally all in the air let us begin."

"Do you all know what a split S is?" Pixy asked as he flew circles around the nuggets.

A chorus of "yes" rang out between the nuggets, confirming that they knew at least some basic maneuvers.

"Aircraft 1 -25 begin Split S combat maneuver" The demon lord ordered.

The nuggets struggles to perform the maneuver it was clear that there training had obvious been lacking. For the next 9 hours they performed the split S and flat scissors ,they were up there so long they had to get a tanker to come and refuel them, they would not last a second even fighting the most green belkan pilots. It was clear that some of them even had trouble just keeping there Plaines in the air. They were so clumsy in the air that they could barely fly straight, much less perform a bombing run. But by the time the day was over their skill had slightly improved, but they had drifted a couple hundred miles away from the base, and the sun had set hours ago.

"Control this is cipher, we will be coming back soon, clear the runways hide the valuables."

"Roger cipher, you are clear for landing."

"now listen up boys and girls, if any of you can beat me or cipher home you will get a generous 10 grand , ready set go!" cipher yelled over the radio , all the nuggets quickly changed the direction and through on there after burners for home. But Pixy and Cipher quickly, without even trying overcame them, either due to the fact that there Plaines were by far superior to that they had much greater flying skills. Quickly Cipher and Pixy were miles ahead of them.

"They will never be trained…."

"Well there our future."

"I don't think any of them are mercenaries." Cipher said as he quickly changed direction, to face the oncoming nuggets, he hovered there for a second , his engine directing thrust downward to keep him hovering exactly still , he took in the image for one second but then quickly reversed the plane and flew right back up to pixy.

"Well this will take a while."

"Understatement of the century."

They Pixy and cipher landed quickly, and stood by the runway to watch the nuggets come in, they landed very ungracefully and unceremoniously scraping the runway and damaging it, it would take days to repair it after what they had done to it. They then proceeded to the briefing room, a post mission review.

"Now one day, far from now we will both to learn your names, but now we will go with numbers. To begin 17, 18, 22, you were all great at flying, if your goal is to crash and burn same goes with 3, 24 and 42." The demon lord said, staring at the nuggets.

"And the rest of you, just because you're not terrible doesn't mean you're not bad."Cipher said as he dropped the clip board he had been holding and walked off.

"Now," pixy began, looking at the closing door.

"We will begin same time tomorrow, and if you think today was hard, tomorrow will be insane."

Pixy finished, finally sitting down in a comfortable chair, the nuggets left one by one.

Note: sorry it took so long to do this but I wrote it differently, also I will be going back and editing earlier chapters to please go back and read them.


	7. Mind Games

A/U note , sorry it took so long but should be good.

There once was a demon , who lived in a castle high in the mountains , by his side stood a angel, with a wing dipped in crimson, they ruled the skies together and the lands below them , they were kind to their friends, but they made their enemies blood boil.

They escalated conflict between the villagers, a petty squabble would end up destroying a whole city , the world was ravaged by them , but there good deeds out weighed there evil. But once in a while someone, from outside of their nation would attack , and the duo would defend their land and their allies with all the strength .

They had received awards, metals and were loved by their allies and feared by their enemies, they were practically gods , although they were incredibly humble, people insisted on treating them as royalty.

The two gods had disagreements though, they had different ideology , viewpoints, but there love for there people usually overpowered there differences and forced them to work together from the mountain fortress. One day the nations asked them to train a new generation of warriors, preparations for the day that they would die , they accepted the challenge, but quickly the recruits diverged into two factions , the devils and the angels, but together they helped the country.

It had been said for a long time that the Demon and angel had been born in the skis, but some people, a small select group new different , they hid there knowledge until it came time ,to bring down the double edged sword that had haunted the land , these people loved them very dearly but they could not see the country side destroyed by them.

One day a nearby empire had grown power hungry, they had been cast down numerous times but this time the emperor would not hear of it , he was going to take the world for his own purposes and the world would not be able to stop him.

It was at this time that the peoples needed heroes, so the angel and the demon flew down from there mountain hideout, there crimson wings and godlike appearances made everyone stare in awe , but just the sheer site of there guardians rallied the people and gave them a fighting chance, they became united and began a crusade against the empire.

With a wish and a blessing from the people the two flew off and destroyed the greedy empire and there powerful army , they turned the tables on the aggressors and had managed to stall there advance into friendly territory, but it was at that time that the duos disagreements met a apex, the Angel flew off from the demons side and left him to stop the empire himself , The angel had stabbed the Demon before he left, blood flowing down his dark scales as he collapsed to the ground , he managed to ask why to his once friend who merely replied "I don't like shadows" and flew off into the night , his red wing burned into the memory of the demon.

It was at this point that the apprentices also made there choise, a few dedicated guardians stayed by the noble demons side, but the majority of them betrayed there country and flew off with their Angelic leader.

The demon was able to recover from the blow, but the impact of his closest friend betraying him stung him were it most hurt , his soul. Then the demon decided to go on a quest, to slay the angel that had betrayed him so long ago , he traveled the lands thoroughly , leaving a trail of destruction behind him ,searching for the angel but in his noble quest he found no trace , until one day when the angel threatened to destroy the world , and on that day they fought the final battle , and in the last battle between the two the demon against all odds managed to slay his nemesis and save the world.

But in reality the demons soul had been destroyed long ago , on that day of betrayal , he was abandoned by his only true friend , he had seen that moment coming but after that he had become a soulless killing machine with nothing to lose, the remnants of his soul watched from their position in the heavens as his body tore up anyone in sight , what had the world come to, what had led him to become like this.

But in the end they were recombined, the body and soul , and they flew off into the night , The demon wanted to find out why he had killed his friend , and what he had done to deserve his punishment. From that day on no one had ever seen then demon again and his legend slowly faded into darkness , the people that he had once saved denied his existence , the greatest blow that they could have dealt.

And so ended the legend of the Demon and the Angel , and there eternal struggle of the twilight , but it has always been told that it never truly ended.

The interesting fact about this story is that hundreds of thousands of version and copies of this story have been printed and told , but they are all different and it is commonly known that they are all missing a decent chunk of the story , but there is a good chance that it will never be recovered.

Cipher slowly opened his eyes; the rennet's of the dream still foggy in his mind , the ceiling of his quarters was a solid shade of grey, poorly painted over the standard ceiling tiles, so standard, in such an odd place. He rested there for a second, the pain that went along with chronic sleep deprivation fading away as he finally forced his body to sit up , muscles contracting and expanding to follow this order, it was all amazing sometimes, he closed the splayed open book that had been resting on his chest , _101 legends _, a collection of ancient stories that had been passed from generation to generation , slowly evolving into what it had become today.

He slowly stretched as he looked around, it was odd , he couldn't hear anyone else right now , almost like the world belonged to him ,So strange sometimes…

He slowly glanced over to his alarm clock, _4:37 _stood out in glowing red light, almost cutting him, through the air with its blinding radiance. He continued, removing the fur blanket which surrounded him, placing the book on the top of the alarm clock . He slowly stood up, he stumbled over to the window and opened the shades, the earliest rays of mourning light were coming over the mountains, into the room. It was odd how much grey could just make the world seem color blind. He rubbed his eyes, finally realizing how the world was coated in a world of fuzz, sometimes it seemed like it was just to early.

He walked over to the desk; it was parrel to his bed and had a mirror hanging above it on top of it, also a depressing shade of grey in the morning light. He fumbled through one of the drawers, finding the white and green case that housed his contacts he slowly opened it and slid them into place, the fuzz of the world being sliced through, now that he could actually see, the crude disguises slipping away.

He slowly walked back over to the window, barely able to hold himself up he looked out, at the edge of the mountains a flight of aircraft was barely visible, there sharp edges sticking out in the grey light, there metal plate gleaming a dull shade of grey, there surfaces almost blended into the black mountains but the difference was noticeable with the naked eye, just barely…

He proceeded to sit on the bed ,it creaked under the newfound weight but remained stable, he reached out , looking for a t-shirt, so he could get something to make the mourning more sharper, coffee , or going outside .The cold was sleeping in through the window , icicles like daggers hanging from the walls of the building . He finally found what he was looking for , a black t-shirt decorated with a grey panda skull and bamboo bones it was hilarious and sad at the same time , like most of his life . He slowly slid it on , the smooth cotton falling over him . He reached over for the keys that he always kept on his desk, he slipped them into the pockets of his pants, weak magnets tugging on them as they fell into position. Cipher proceeded to open the door to the hallway, the fluorescent light strangely illuminated the hall with a eerie white light, it was practically a bunker from the inside , but something about it yelled frozen mountain.

He proceeded to stick his right foot out , coming into contact with cold, white tiles , sending a shiver through him his nerves almost froze but he pressed on, walking out of his room and quickly shutting the door, a almost silent _click _of the steel lock sliding into place was the only audible sound beside the gentle snores of the sleeping personnel, only the ghosts that maintained the base at night were up , but there footsteps were far beyond audible range, just like ghosts.

He continued to walk, slowly but the pace quickened, towards the end of the hallway, it was odd how he encountered no one during his short journey, even at 4 am it was a base of hundreds, it was a key point in the allied lines , it was odd how such a important place was disserted . He finally came across the end of the hallway, making a right turn he continued to walk , his bare feet scraping against the white tiles, the small imperfections in the tiles highlighted in the grey light of the mourning.

He proceeded to walk down the hallway , finally making a left turn he opened the door , revealing the empty mess hall, the large tables deserted and the chairs ghosts of the crew, just beyond visual range was the ghosts of the people that had lived there , just beyond range.

He pressed on , walking towards the center of the mess hall, coming across a coffee machine he grabbed a styrophone cup and filled it with the dark black liquid. He claimed a table a table in the center of the room, pulling up a chair he sat down and looked up at the sky , dark grey clouds filling the sky, a icy sky window slightly obscuring his vision, that always happened in the mountains, but that did not mean he liked it or hated it more , it was just a simple fact.

He leaned back in the chair, materials creaking as he increased the pressure on it , he heard something , a door being opened. He did not bother to look to see who it was or to bother seeing what they were doing at such a early hour , or incredibly late for the fighters that had been flying above, but it was quickly clear that the person was grabbing a cup of the bile liquid that passed as coffee, the scent of the machine filled the air , ground beans filling the icy air.

The unknown intruder walked towards the table where he was sitting and pulled up a chair, Cipher finally took his gaze off of the sky light and looked at the new cumber, he walked confidently and self assured, there were few people that walked that way at a time like this , very few…

"Commander uhhhh hi…"Cipher stammered, surprised at the casualness of the commander, surprised by the uniform in this place, in this light, his own light. No one ever came upon his light , it shone in the dark alone , all alone.

"Hello…. Did we ever give you a rank?" The commander asked, the question seemed to come out of nowhere but the light made it shine brilliantly, he took a seat in a chair and looked at Cipher. Cipher glanced at the commanders rank insignia and took a second to think of a reply.

"I don't think so…" Cipher responded, taking a sip out of his coffee and setting it back down onto the table, it landed with a silent thud , weak materials clashing was never that interesting , except when they were proxies , there were always proxies , but the difference is the ones that know and the ones that don't.

"you know central has given me the opportunity to give you a field commission as colonel…I heard that the allies were gona give you something similar too" the commander continued, even he was surprised by that , even though he had probably thought it over hundreds if not thousands of times, why until now had they not tried to recruit him into their military? It would have greatly increased the strength of their air force, but it had just became clear.

"does that mean I have to wear a uniform?" Cipher asked, tilting his chair back , balancing on only two of its legs, he reached out and grabbed the coffee and took another sip and held it for a second and looked into The commanders eyes, they met in a stare for a second but it was quickly broken off.

"you don't even wear a flight suit, talking about herding cats…" the commander began, shaking his head in the grey light, his own light began to blend in to the other , creating a Omni present light.

"Its really about publicity, they think if they induct you into our military, even if you are truly still a mercenary , It will look better, and boost morale." The commander said , taking a long swig of his own coffee, he stared into the table , patterns in the wood standing out , covered in grey.

"its all a game , but choose your move carefully" the commander silently muttered, Cipher understood what he meant , he could not say it out loud but he understood the meaning.

"remember the days when I was just a mercenary passing by and had no intent on staying for the next month, let alone , however long it has been…" Cipher said, the ending of his sentence drifting off into nowhere.

"Remember the days when this base was being bombed and our life was in your hands?" He responded, slowly spitting out each word, the grace of his younger days gone.

"Like last week?" he sarcastically asked, they both laughed at that comment but it was short lived, very short lived, the grey seemed to lift for a split second as the laughter cut through the air.

The commander suddenly had a serious look on his face, it cut through to cipher, it was a look of death. He had seen it a few times before , and it was never good, never good.

"we have a mission for your nuggets..." the commander said , his light growing.

"they're not ready!" the darkness advanced.

"I have orders from central what do you want me to do? If I disobey we will all be thrown in a prison for the rest of our lives and possibly executed, do you knows what's at risk if they don't carry it out? 50 compared to millions that will be at stake, this will give the belkans a chance to win the war, and we can't let that happen again! Never again!"He demanded, pure hatred in his voice, he slammed his fist on the table, sending the coffee up into the air, but the commander help Ciphers gaze.

"ok, send me and Pixy then? What is it , me and Pixy can take it!"

"I know, that's the sad part…." The commander responded, looking into his coffee.

"Then why-"

"You've been ordered to fly honor guard for the president, it'll last a week, going to fly to the capital then fly honor guard to the front lines…"

"This is bull" Cipher said , it seemed like he was going to yell but the hatred seemed pointless now .

"Indeed, but you can train them to the best and maybe they will get through it…"

"What are they going to do anyway?" he asked, spinning his coffee cup, slowly spinning.

"Excalibur, a secret Belkan project, if they finish they can burn any of our cities to the ground, it's a massive laser, it's a pen dragon in every meaning."

"that's impossible, technology like that doesn't exist, even if it did its power requirements would be massive!" Cipher demanded, staring into the commanders eyes.

"it does, we are expecting 90% casualties rates, at the best predictions."

"it'll be a fucking blood bath!"

"as I was saying though , you can train them the best, and I'll see what I can do for support, but if this doesn't happen , it'll be much ,much worse." The commander finished, he also finished of his coffee, he then effortlessly through the styrophone mug into the trash and stood up, and he turned around and with a last glance turned his head to face Cipher.

"We'll arrange pay later, just don't do anything irrational, have fun." He finished, walking out of the room and throwing open the door with a commanding presence, he quickly walked out.

Cipher sat there for a while, gazing at the sky light and slowly sipping his coffee, what the fuck had he gotten himself into , there was no way out , well the only ways out ended terribly, therefore not a option.

He held up his left hand to the light, the stitches were gleaming in the grey light , the nylon string entwined with his flesh. The pain of the wound was almost gone, but it still remained, constantly annoying him, just an annoyance.

He must have sat there for a hour , probably longer, people started to file in slowly , the kitchen machines slowly came to life. He finally stood up , moving towards the exit that led towards the hangars, he effortlessly threw his mug into the trash and continued walking. He slowly pushed open the door and set a foot onto the outside concrete.

_COLD_

He quickly withdrew his bare foot, forgetting that he was not wearing shoes or even socks. He knew that he had to go now or he wouldn't, so he jumped, sending impulses through his muscles as they contracted, throwing him into the air.

"shit cold fuck" he yelled as he ran through the ice , moving as fast as he possible could , trying not to stay in one place for very long. He quickly continued, running towards the oversized hangar, trying not to slide on the ice .

"fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" he yelled, clumsily looking for his key that would open the side door of the hangar, the wind ripping the heat away from his body as he grabbed the cold key and pushed it into the lock. The handle slowly loosened up as he turned the key , he quickly ran inside and grabbed the key, slamming the door shut as he jumped through.

The common sensation of incredibly loud rock and roll came over him, the room was as cold as outside but it was not windy , making it seem a lot warmer. He continued to walk farther in , the chief popping out under one of the fighters, a f-18, he slid on a scooter , and slowly sat up, wiping black engine grease from one of his arms onto a worn down rag , it was odd how well he fit into that place , that space , that location.

"it's cold!" Cipher yelled over the loud music, the chief acknowledged this and took out a small remote and turned it down.

"ya, the heat went down a little bit ago and since we aren't working on anything big gave the rest of the people the day off."

"we got those new missiles in yet?"

"ya, thought they were supposed to be top secret…"

"haha it is but I have a clearance high enough that I'm suppose to kill myself if I remember that I have it…"

"well I guess your going to want to install them on your fighter?"

"ahh , you know me to well"

"well I'm done here, shall we get started?" Cipher nodded, The old mechanic stood up and they started to walk towards the Wyvern, the hangar was still incredibly cold but the chief had obviously adjusted to it and the mercenary just did not care.

"You wanna get started on the physical upgrades; I'll get started on the software?"

The mechanic grunted back and laid down on a scooter, he roller under the fighter and pulled a release, the missile bay swinging opened, the doors hanging limp. Cipher proceeded to go towards the cockpit, but was interrupted.

"can you hand me those wires?"

It was amazing how such a small country could get such advanced technology, but allies of Osea tended to get treated well. They managed to quickly install the new missiles , the X-01 trail blazer, it used both infrared and radar, and a new camera tracking system , thrust vectoring allowed it extreme maneuverability , it was sad though that the government wouldn't officially even acknowledge that the concept existed for missiles like this for 20 years , and the regulars won't use them for another 30.

They finished work on the aircraft pretty quickly, they worked together pretty well but the truth was that the X-2 was designed to adapt to advancing technology. But the real question was , could the pilot adapt to the reality of the advance.

"Hey someone else here?"

"No just us…"

"You sure?"

"ya, too cold for anyone else."

**** 7 hours later****

Cipher and Pixy had them all go through rigorous training, a lot worse now that they knew there fait and what would probably happen to all of them, none of them found it odd though that most of their training was defensive maneuvers, mostly tactics involving getting close enough to a mountain to be able to fire a missiles, the mountain also happened to be fortified with railguns , SAM, and a massive laser, nothing like this was even close to existence , at least that's what the public and they thought…

"no , don't fire the missiles to early, the laser will shoot it down and the shrapnel will kill you , that almost happened to pixy once , it's not pretty…"

"Although it was kind of different, a lot different." Pixy responded, making a sharp turn as Cipher fired the mock laser at him, the red beam barely missing him as he made a sharp turn , high Gs pressing down on him, he made another sharp turn and closed in on Cipher.

"sir, I mean god, isn't it kind of useless in teaching us to dodge lasers, last time I checked the Belkans did not have any ?" A nugget asked, it was clear that he was annoyed by all of this training, if only they could know, all the hours, staying up into the late night , only will power keeping them awake , falling asleep in the cockpit…. It always seemed pointless until it was used.

"The belkans are a lot more advanced then you think…"

"And you know this how?" a nugget asked, it was a good question.

" because-" Cipher began but was cut off by a number of nuggets, by now they had begun to know the typical responses, making it unneeded,

"Your god?"

"Your clearance is so high that you'll have to commit suicide if you remember?"

"Because you're the demon lord of the round table?"

Pixy began to laugh, his aircraft almost spinning out of control as his bellowing laughter was filling the air, a couple of the nuggets joined In but it ended pretty quickly , the odd silence returning.

"all of the above, none of the above, some of the above, take your pick." Cipher casually responded , making a broad turn in his aircraft he returned into formation.

A couple of seconds passed by as they cruised through the air, the laughter of Pixy slowly disappearing as they slowly drifted apart.

"Ok well lets reform and we can try this again-" Cipher was quickly cut off , a razor through the air , a emergent razor, the razor that was only known by a few.

"Fuck! Sir my engine, something's wrong!" A female nugget yelled, her aircraft shook with a loud explosion and it began to spin out of control, it began to spin in a tight circle, the pilot must have been subjected to high Gs , the aircraft kept turning in a tight circle and began to lose altitude. This was commonly called the death spiral , the pilot would not be able to change the direction of the aircraft and the high Gs crippled their responses.

"Eject!" Pixy yelled, the laughter completely gone from his voice as he looked down upon the aircraft that was quickly spinning out of control, it quickly began to twist, violently maneuvering out of control , the terminal stage of the spiral of death.

"Its stuck!" she yelled back , strain obviously in her voice, it was not very surprising through , at times like this.

"Equipment failure at a time like this…" Cipher began, shooting down to the same altitude as the damaged F-5.

"ok , cut the fuel and glide in, the base isn't far from here and your pretty far up , can probably glide to the runway."

"she can't , we don't all have keyboards that can control every system and sub system…"

"if we can't cut the fuel line…" Cipher began , Pixy quickly picked up on the idea that he had in his mind.

"that's insane , you'll just end up igniting the gas and turning it into a death trap!"

"I don't intend on using the main gun…" Cipher quickly dived, quickly loosing altitude and falling far below the F-5 , the aircraft wasn't in a free fall , its flaps just seemed to be jammed in place to gradually descend , a piece of shrapnel was lodged in it.

"You crazy bastard!" Pixy yelled, fury in his voice, the safest thing to do now was to have the plane crash and hope the fuel doesn't ignite or the ammunitions detonate, and hope that a rescue team could get there quickly, life could end quickly , like a razor of decision.

Cipher , hovering above the ground quickly opened the cockpit , he dived below the command console and withdrew the components for a G36, the rifle, using regular rounds , not the armor piercing which he regularly used, should have enough power to puncture the fuel tank but not do anything more. He quickly assembled the rifle with practiced hands, grabbing a clip and slamming it in, the metallic bullets gleaming in the afternoon air.

"DON'T DO IT!"

"shut up I have to concentrate!" Cipher yelled back, throwing his feat over the side of the aircraft and pushing his shoulders up the opposite side of the cockpit, he quickly brought the scope up to his eyes and concentrated, the automatic targeting system booting up and automatically zooming into the aircraft, advanced technology, the double edged sword of the century.

He held his breath and look into his scope, his heart slowly slowing , he got a clear shot on the fuel tank , and he slowly pulled the trigger, sending 3 metal slugs flying towards the air , slicing through the fuel tanks, letting the jet fuel slowly trickle out.

He took another breath and set the rifle to burst mode and then looked back through the scope , he got another clear shot on the fuel tank and fired of a rapid succession of rounds, the fuel tank began to quickly pour out more fuel , it continued for a couple of seconds until it gradually slowed to a stop.

He looked back up at the aircraft, it was still spinning , albeit much slower as the engine groaned to a stop , the flaps were still jammed. He set his rifle back to single shot mode and looked back up, it was still falling and spinning quickly, he quickly zoomed into the rear area of the aircraft where the jam had occurred , the piece of shrapnel was very large and scorched black, the metal piece looked like it was made out of titanium , the bullet would have to hit it at the right angle to dislodge it .

He took a second to make the quickly calculation in his mind , he had to hit it at a angle coming from the rear of the aircraft to knock it out. He quickly adjusted his position to be ready to fire, he had a clear shot on the piece of metal and he pulled the trigger, the metal sprang out of its position as the bullet hit it , the plain began to level out , high enough up that it could easily glide back to base.

Cipher quickly unloaded the G36 and disassembled it , storing it back into its practically hidden compartment. He finally sat back in the cockpit and closed the canopy , warm air rushing into the cockpit.

There was no doubt in his mind that he had missed a lot of exited radio chatter while he was making the shot , but now it was quiet.

"so, did I do good?" he asked, still hovering in the air.

"ya, thank you sir , I should be able to make it back to base , reading some malfunctions but its cause of the explosion." She responded, gliding towards the runway.

"you crazy son of a bitch…" Pixy said, slowly descending towards the nuggets level, he was always acting as a guardian , always guarding.

"Now before we get caught up in the celebration, do they use titanium in the F-5 " cipher asked, switching from V-Tol mode and beginning to fly normally.

A numbers of no's and I don't think so came back from the nuggets, even though Pixy responded with a probably, it was odd though , they hadn't been able to handle pure titanium for very long before the F-5 was originally produced, something was wrong about this.

"I guess we should go in for now , we all need refueling and we don't know what caused the explosion …" Cipher said , the sentence drifting off into nowhere .

"and grab some lunch…" Pixy added in, the nuggets were obviously excited, most COs would make them stay in the air and have a tanker come up, but not these two, well they were something different.

They slowly flew towards the base, following the heavily damaged aircraft; it slowly descended towards the runway.

"try not to break , you'll need the momentum , just ride her in nice and easy…"

"sir, are you talking to me or to the aircraft?"

"both I suppose…" Cipher responded, he had heard this all before , but positions were reversed.

"control have you been listening?" Cipher asked, accelerating quickly and making a quick flyby the control tower, relaxation and relief emanating.

"yes, we are aware of the situation, we have emergency crews standing by just in case." One of the control staff responded, the same one which Pixy was friendly with, she always kept reappearing.

" ok , lower the gears , get ready to go in…" Pixy began tension strong in his voice as he announced the orders.

"sir, I know how to land a aircraft."

"it's not that half the systems could have been compromised and there is a significant chance you'll explode on impact…" Cipher added in , supporting Pixy .

"Not at all" Pixy added in .

"thanks, way to boost my morale."

"hate to interrupt sirs, but if there is such a high chance that something terrible will happen is this really a good idea?" A nugget cut in, Rifleman.

"you got a better one ?"

"no"

" thanks for the recommendation , we will take it into consideration." Cipher sarcastically replied , slowing airspeed and preparing for landing , following the heavily damaged aircraft, Pixy was flying above the airfield, keeping a close eye on the whole formation.

She slowly descended , the landing gear just inches above the ground, they slowly came into contact, but something was wrong, they snapped, sending sparks through the air the aircraft long control and began to flip , it kept rolling until it hit a small building , a fuel storage room , sending a burst of flame into the air , from the air the aircraft itself seemed to have mostly survived, it was covered in a layer of black soot but the hull seemed to have survived.

"FUCK , ALL AIRCRAFT BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE!" Cipher yelled, quickly pulling his aircraft as shrapnel shot through the air , hitting most of the still flying aircraft, but they got through it most unscarred.

"Anyone damaged?" Pixy asked , soaring well above the explosion, he looked down at the 50 aircraft, all covered in a thin level of black soot.

"we're fine , all aircraft land , stay clear of the explosion." Cipher said , exhaling as he finished the sentence, why does everything have to end in tragedy, bloody tragedy.

He shot through the air , hovering a couple of feet above the black crater, he quickly switched his aircraft to VTOL mode and began to land, some remnants of the explosion were still burning . The aircraft landed unevenly but he quickly opened the canopy , ignoring the slight tilt , jumping onto one of the black wings he spotted ambulances and fire fighting teams coming , but this was a big base , and they were far away. He quickly jumped off the wing of the X-4 and ran towards the crashed aircraft, the heat from the fire greatly raising the temperature of the crater, he quickly made it to the damaged aircraft, he bent over the cockpit , it was face forward in concrete, the nose oddly bent out of shape, the rest of the plain horribly distorted.

Cipher moved his finger around the cockpit and then found what he was looking for , the emergency release ,he pulled it and felt the lock disengage, he managed to push it open , with great force. He reached over to feel her pulse, she was alive but unconscious.

He looked over towards the incoming vehicles, all had blaring sirens that were loud from there , but they were still far away.

"talk about awkward…" Cipher began , bending over farther and released the restraints , and began to pick her up, all aircraft pilots usually ended up weighting a lot , something to do with being in the top 1% of the armed forces, or just extreme arrogance.

He stood up , holding the burnt unconscious body in his arms , the flames all around , annoyingly hot. He stood there for a second, admiring the moment then proceeded to walk towards his fighter , he walked up towards the nose , using a pile of debris to walk up to the awaiting aircraft, he slowly walked towards the cockpit , being very careful not to fall off the small surface, it was very dangerous normally but he did not mind that , but carrying someone else that was already heavily injured and the land below is full of sharp debris.

He sat down , gently laying her leaning against the side of the cockpit , legs draped across him , at least he did have a abnormally large aircraft and a abnormally large cockpit.

He slowly started the turbines, and began to hover , at first just a couple of inches above the ground but he slowly rose until he was standing several feet. He then proceeded to slowly guide the aircraft towards the oncoming vehicles, setting the aircraft down in front of them, the front wheels of the aircraft settled with a dull thunk, followed as the rear wheels also settled on the ground, he opened the canopy and stood up , holding up the wounded pilot, he slowly stepped onto the right wing , pointing out towards the quickly braking vehicles , he jumped down , his knees bending as the impact sent shutters through him , the sirens grew incredibly loud , as a ambulance braked , infront of the other vehicles, a medical crew rushed out and approached him , they quickly grabbed the female pilot from his arms and put her on a stretcher and rushed back to the ambulance, one of the medical crew turned back to him .

" what you did cold have saved her life, we gota get her to the medical ward now , talk later" he said , running back into the ambulance as it quickly drove away, the tires leaving skid marks as it turned direction. The Fire fighting vehicles quickly sped by and rushed towards the crashed plain , quickly covering the distance .

He slowly jumped on top of the wing and looked up , there were fire fighting helicopters flying by , throwing soot into the air , making the afternoon air incredibly dark. After looking up for a couple of seconds he got into the cockpit and slowly activated the engine, coming alive with a dull pur, he twisted the plain to face the runway and started to roll forward, it only took the aircraft about a minute to get there but it seemed a eternity, the other aircraft were landing , taking a while as they came down , 1 by 1 by 1. By the time that cipher was near the runway at least half of the plains had landed, the pilots gathering around outside of the main hangar that the squad used .

As he slowly rolled into the hangar Pixy walked up to the plain and jumped onto the wing , the metal quietly creaking as the weight settled on it , he strided over to the center of the hull and sat down , looking at the small crater.

"you were heroic… that's new." Pixy said , his voice emanating from behind Cipher.

"that's what we get paid to do."

"I don't think anywhere in our contract does it say anything about rescuing people."

"well couldn't let her die , like some people …" Cipher said , finally parking the aircraft inside the massive hangar and standing up , looking back at pixy he jumped down onto the concrete floor, knees bending as he hit the floor , a surprisingly long distance jump.

"how they handling it?" Cipher asked, pointing towards the massive pile of recruits all huddles around the hangar doors.

"shaken, think some of them are gona be sick , they haven't even seen a body before." Pixy said , a memory of how many people he had killed going through his mind.

Pixy jumped off the hull and started to walk towards the main hangar doors, Cipher quickly following behind him .

"know what you mean sometimes, half of them won't survive the first 3 seconds of combat, and the other half …"

"ya, but what do you expect when you conscript aircraft jocs…"

They continued to walk , the nuggets conversation began to come into range, they were talking about the disaster and how it could have happened, they had probably skipped out engineering and aircraft physics at the academy, even if they went to it.

They continued to walk out of the hanger , coming in range of a nugget, rain , she was leaning her head against the hangar wall and looked like she was going to die on the spot.

"feeling ok?" Pixy asked as they approached her, they were just intending to walk by , but they did slow there passé.

"feel like I'm going to puke everything I've eaten in the last 20 years sir." She responded.

Cipher grabbed a helmet off a rack and through it to her , barely managing to catch it she looked into it.

"feel free to through up… just not on the deck floor." Cipher said as they continued to walk by, from what they heard , sounded like she had puked out half her guts, and they heard someone yelling "WHY DID YOU USE MY HELMET" in the background.

"something was wrong about that."

"what do you mean?"Pixy asked .

"if there was a fuel burst how could there have been shrapnel in the underside?"

"how do you know it was a fuel burst?"

"well it was either that or a bomb, I'm not sure but I think it was a titanium firing pin in the rudder, they don't use titanium in the F-5 , and if it even was a fuel burst the shrapnel disagreed with that…"

"well , we can't check it?"

"ya ,and how the fuck would a fuel burst in the back be related to the front gears not working…" Pixy added in.

They continued walking towards the main base complex , the recruits still gather around the hangar doors, at least they could relay information if anything was found out.

" at least we don't have to be in the air today."Pixy said , using a oversized spoon to place some dark mushrooms onto his plate.

"speak for yourself…"Cipher responded , grabbing a bowl of soup from the counter as they continued to progress down the line.

"not all of us have the need for speed that you do" Pixy said , picking up his tray as he began to walk towards a table.

"just cause you guys have no taste in good movies…"

Cipher picked his own tray up and followed pixy as they sat down on a next to a table, the legs of the chairs bending as the new weight set down on them , a quiet clink rang through the air as they placed the trays on the table.

"anyway back to subject, they need all the training they can get before this mission, shit like this is unacceptable."

"don't think we will have anything to say about that," Cipher looked like he was going to continue but someone suddenly came bursting through the front door , quickly heading towards Galm team.

"messenger" Pixy silently said , watching the nugget breaking through tables and chairs , it was amazing how fast they could run.

"sir." The nugget began , saluting there commanders.

"drop the salute." Cipher said , continuing to eat his food.

"yes sir , anyway the chief thinks that it was sabotage , he said he should have more soon ."

"ok , tell us when ." Cipher said , grabbing a clean crisp twenty out of his pocket and thrusting it towards the nugget , he looked surprised at the money but accepted it , gratified he saluted and ran off .

"you know we don't have to pay them right?" Pixy asked, food particles starting to fly.

"ya, but with the amount of money we make it really doesn't matter."

For the next hour the two of them still sat in there , watching people pass by the room , slowly becoming less crowded until only a few remained , it was amazing how the room had changed in hour, sometimes when you just sat and took in the scenery everything seems to change, like a well observed chess match or a razor edge , somehow everything seems to be relatable to war , even the most insignificant things .

Randomly wizard appeared , and sat down quickly pulling up a chair and setting down a fizzling carbonated drink onto the table. He always seemed to have a serious look on his face , he was able to laugh and have a good time , but always on his face was the same serious expression , like the world was about to be destroyed and that he was contemplating what would happen.

"I heard about the mission , it just isn't right , it's pure suicide, sometimes I think that the top brass want to win this war through pure attrition." He said , taking a long gulp from his cup and setting it back down onto the table.

The demon lord looked up at the two of them with a serious glance in his eyes " never fight a war of attrition, it just leads to low morale and a crippled economy , no , that's not what's happening , with all the victories we had it has become clear that they have a knack for strategy , it's something else and I'm beginning to think I know what it is."

"you cant be serious …" pixy responded, catching onto the reason that the demon lord was reffering to , it took Wizard a couple more seconds to get his meaning it he eventually got it , he looked up horrified.

"then why would they have you train them?"

"publicity, and they probably did not realize what would happen until recently."

" and the commissions?

" if we had accepted they would have called it off…"

"You're kidding?"

"nope, this whole thing was a sick mind game played by the government , they create loose-loose scenarios to force people to make hasty choices, not seeing the way out." The demon lord finished , staring at a fighter that was flying above the base, the frosted window blurred it but it was still obviously a f-16, probably circling and waiting for clearance to land. They were all waiting , for something to happen, always waiting.

"what have they given us?" Pixy muttered under his breath , wizard nodded along to the comment but cipher looked at them both with a quizzical expression, sometimes it seemed that they were off in there own world.

They all sat there in silence for a couple of seconds until wizard had a break through.

"why don't you just go with them anyway, you got your own plains , you could save them all…"

"I have a feeling there going to put us into another loose-loose situation , forcing us to be away when that happens, this isn't the first time I've seen something like this happen before."

They waited there for longer but once again the silence was broken by a recruit , running through tables , quickly closing the gap.

"SIRS YOU MUST GET TO THE HANGAR NOW!" the nugget yelled at Pixy ,Wizard and Cipher , they all assumed that wizard was excluded from this but he came anyway, they ran after the nugget who horridly led them to the main hangar, transferring the vast wasteland which was the runway to the finally warm hangar, they followed the recruit in .

"nice to see you finally arrived." The commander said , he was standing in the hangar, armed.

There were a couple of military police there , numerous mechanics surrounded them, the chief ahd a extremely weird look on his face , like he knew something was gona happen, and the music , the sounds of war were quiet , deathly quiet.

"what's going on?" Cipher asked, quickly followed by Pixy , Wizard was trailing far behind .

"we found bombs on every aircraft, not just the nuggets." The chief said , a grave tone in his voice.

"every aircraft?"

"well all but two…" the commander said, he was holding up a checklist , with names of aircrafts, a lot of names.

"which two?" Pixy asked , walking up to stand behind Cipher , due to his height he could still see everyone clear , like a demented guardian.

" the X-02 Wyvern and a XF-22 , the chiefs to be exact." The commander continued.

" and you two were in here recently , alone , working on aircraft?" he continued , something was very very wrong about this.

"yes , installing missiles , people do repairs ya know!" Cipher began , very outraged at what they were saying , at least implying.

"for hours?"

"yes, these aren't row boats ya know."

"please arrest these gentlemen" the commander said , motioning towards the MPs , who began to move on the chief and Cipher, the crowd began to move back but there was a jolt of movement.

"that is not how we are going to play this…" cipher stood there , holding the pistol that he always carried in his hand , he began to walk towards the chief.

A/U note, well sorry about the cliff hangar , I've been working on some cipher one shots which might compose the next chapter .

just a final note, REVIEW!


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